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Rangers play it safe, take a bow for a job well done

Rangers play it safe, take a bow for a job well done

7/2/13: Elvis Andrus lines a single to left field to drive in Leonys Martin and get the Rangers on the board, making it a 2-1 ballgame

By T.R. Sullivan
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MLB.com |

BALTIMORE -- The Rangers were 15-6 in their last 21 games going into Wednesday's game against the Orioles. They deserve to take a bow.

Oh, wait. They already do that. The formal Japanese bow has now become thing to do after a base hit on the team that invented the "Claw and Antlers" in 2010. Elvis Andrus is most noticeable as one who folds his hands and bows toward the Rangers dugout after getting a hit.

"When we were struggling, we were doing a lot of different handshakes," Andrus said. "We decided to do something different."

It started with Jeff Baker suffering a sprained right thumb with an over-enthusiastic teammate while exchanging high-fives. As a joke, somebody put up a sign in the Rangers dugout that said no more handshakes or high fives ... "Just Japanese bows."

The Rangers took it to heart.

"I don't know who wrote that or put it on the [dugout] wall," Andrus said. "But when they did, we all said, 'Why don't we do that?'

"It was cool. Everybody liked it. So we started doing that and we've been playing better. I've never seen a team do that. It's super cool and it's super original."